In 1941, three businessmen found themselves with complementary inventory problems: John G. Martin had purchased the rights to Smirnoff vodka but couldn't sell it to Americans who didn't drink vodka; Jack Morgan owned the Cock'n Bull tavern in Hollywood and had created his own ginger beer that wasn't selling; and Sophie Berezinski had inherited a copper mug manufacturing business with unsold inventory. The three met at the Chatham Hotel in New York and devised a solution — combine all three products into a single cocktail.

The resulting Moscow Mule was as much a marketing campaign as a recipe. Martin and Morgan traveled to bars across America carrying a Polaroid camera, photographing bartenders holding copper mugs with their cocktails. The photos went on each bar's wall as social proof, and customers began ordering "that drink in the copper mug." The name was pure marketing brilliance: "Moscow" invoked vodka's Russian origins (exotic and intriguing to 1940s Americans) while "Mule" referenced the ginger beer's kick.

By the 1950s, the campaign had helped establish vodka as America's spirit of choice — a position it holds to this day. The Moscow Mule spawned an entire family of "Mule" cocktails: the Kentucky Mule (bourbon), Mexican Mule (tequila), London Mule (gin), and many others, all following the same spirit-ginger beer-lime formula. The IBA recognises it as a Contemporary Classic. Today it remains one of the most ordered cocktails in the United States, proof that a great flavour combination can outlast even the most calculated marketing scheme.